Dee-6: Dice Defenders

I normally dont review games this quickly, with only 3 hours of game time, but at this point I already know more than enough about this one to do it, and I want to give it some more attention if possible. Dee-6 is actually a game I'm already very familiar with... mostly. It is basically an unofficial port of a board game called Deep Space D-6, which is a personal favorite of mine among my collection and one I've played many times. Well, I say "port", but that's just the start of it. It absolutely LOOKS the same, complete with the minimalistic enemy cards and dice symbols, but past that, this isnt just a port... this is a massive upgrade. This contains way, WAY more content, a big pile of added mechanics, new modes, and so on. I want to state right away that no, this is NOT like FTL. The only similarity is that you assign crew to tasks... that's it. It plays nothing like it otherwise, so just keep that in mind. I know it's the first comparison many will think of when seeing thi...

Very good rendition of Deep Space D6, with a nice suit of additions (ships, threats, game modes, achievements, progression). I prefer the presentation in Deep Space D6 (or is it because I have played it so much?), but Dee-6's presentation is still functional & clear enough. I have to say the game is an acquired taste, but I certainly disagree with the lack of dice roll mitigation statement. The game gives you many different ways to mitigate bad rolls. That being said, the game can be a bit swingy at times, but that's part of the appeal to me. So, if you like Deep Space D6, it's a no-brainer. If not, it's a nice dice chucker with a lot of variety & a lot more depths than it looks.

This truly is a game of tempo. The game is all about trying to stay ahead in tempo above the enemy deck, and if you ever fall behind on tempo, boy does this game punish you for it. Thus, this is a recommendation with caveats. First, I think the campaign is where the game truly shines as it has smaller decks with specific themed enemies that give a cool different experience each time you play. It also has a feature I wish was available in standard battles- the store. In the game sometimes the dice will plunge your tempo so far into the depths that it's impossible to recover, and the store can give massive spikes of tempo back to you. Thus if you get the game, after your first standard battle and loss (if you somehow win your first standard battle I am in awe) I would say stick to the campaign for the most part. Second, you really have to temper your expectations of winning. This is not a game where once you know the game you should be winning every battle- luck is a huge factor. I do...

If you're a fan of Deep Space D-6, Star Trek: The Dice Game or Astroforce, you're going to enjoy this game. It plays very similarly to Deep Space D-6, with you rolling the dice, assigning them to stations and pretty much turning lemons into lemonade each turn. There's a lot of RNG. I mean, dice are the core mechanic of the game. What do you expect? So, going into it, you should already be aware that this game is about mitigation. And it is. There's plenty of ways to deal with threats and there are choices to be made each turn. Especially when you have to choose between using a command to turn a crew die into an engineer (to restore the shields or disable an attacker) or a marine (to do some damage). Or do you use the command to re-roll all the other dice (and risk getting another threat)? You will lose the first few games. That's almost guaranteed. After you get the hang of it and develop an idea of which threats are the most important to deal with, you'll start winning.

Extremely addicting & original single player tabletop game. Dice are the crew members you distribute to functions every turn, trying to fend off space pirates, epidemic viruses & all kinds of trouble.

Good dice allocating fun!

Love the idea but horrible pacing completely ruins the fun. Most of the turns nothing interesting happens, and turns where literally nothing happens are not uncommon as well.

Too much randomness! The game plays itself most of the time and your input is reduced to shuffling dice into predetermined positions. In case of many turns, you will just have no real options, no decisions to make - you are not a player, you are a clerk. Furthermore, the line between 'soldiering on' and 'failure guaranteed' is so damn fragile. Hardly any wiggle room. Again, if luck decides it is game over time, you will just get into insurmountable odds within a turn or two and that's it.

Great casual turn based game for when you want to decompress after work and blow stuff up.

Meh it seems ok at first, but not really enough choice/dice mitigation really. it just kind of plays itself